The 24 Seven: Pivots

The top seven stories shaping the race for the White House

C-SPAN Founder Brian Lamb hosts the first call-in back in 1980, which would eventually grow to become “Washington Journal”. Lamb retired Friday. (Screenshot of C-SPAN by Tom LoBianco/24sight News.)

1. Views

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sat down for their first major interview as the Democratic ticket with CNN Thursday night.

In perhaps the sharpest exchange, CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash pressed Harris for a clear answer on why she opposed fracking in the 2020 Democratic primary, but later changed her stance to say she would not seek a national ban on the that method of extracting natural gas — long a flashpoint dividing environmentalists and energy industry types and a key issue in Pennsylvania.

As veteran political reporter

Chris Cillizza

noted, the interview is highly unlikely to move any numbers in the race, but it was still very useful as we head into the homestretch of the 2024 race.

Bash, a veteran reporter and longtime CNN staple, pressed repeatedly with follow-ups as Harris and Walz tried to talk their way past answering key questions. (This is fairly standard practice for pols, though notable here that they didn’t attack Bash for repeating the questions, unlike Trump who fights often with reporters interviewing him.)

The performance from Harris and Walz, who spoke a good deal less than Harris, gave a good sense of how each candidate will likely perform on the debate stage — sticking firm to their message and ducking any questions they don’t like or attempting to run out the clock with talking points.

Former president Donald Trump, seemingly anticipating the much talked about Harris/Walz sitdown, spent Thursday giving a number of interviews himself — as he often does when the spotlight turns from him.

2. New Stance

In one of those interviews, Trump said Thursday he would vote in favor of Florida’s abortion rights measure on the ballot this November and supports access to in vitro fertilization (IVF.) Trump initially told NBC News that he would mandate insurance companies cover the procedure, but later backed off a bit saying that he would prefer each state decide that issue.

Anti-abortion, pro-life voters don’t have much of a choice at the top of the ticket, as Trump has repeatedly peeled himself away from Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation project staffed by many of his top loyalists and former White House aides, but Harris has promised to sign any law granting nationwide abortion access if it makes it to her desk. This raises the specter, again, that anti-abortion voters, long one of the most powerful blocs of “single issue” voters, could sit it out in November.

3. Messaging

In her rally in Savannah, Georgia Thursday night, Harris won some of the largest applause (and loudest boos) as she tagged Trump repeatedly for appointing the justices who overturned federal abortion protections and talking about Trump’s ties to the conservative playbook, Project 2025.

“I will say it again, simply put, they are out of their minds!” Harris said in her rally, which was a notably short 22 minutes speech.

To hammer home the message, which Democrats have leaned on extensively and consistently since the Dobbs decision two years ago, Harris’s campaign announced they’re launching a “Reproductive Rights” bus tour starting in Florida this holiday weekend.

4. Unavoidable

Notable at the Harris rally Thursday night, beyond the continued strong turnout and focus on a corner of the state often overlooked by White House candidates, was the intensity of pro-Palestinian protesters there. (Harris parried the protesters with her standard response saying she hears them, she’s speaking, the administration is working on it.)

Harris and the Democrats avoided massive protests inside the Democratic convention and in the streets of Chicago last week, to the relief of many in the party.

But the continued intensity, plus the failure of Israel and Hamas (with the Biden-Harris administration mediating) to negotiate a ceasefire, increases the likelihood this will be a continue being critical issue heading in to November.

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5. Brevity

An emerging theme of Harris’s campaign stops is brevity. The vice president’s standard stump speech typically clocks in around 30 minutes, her acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Chicago wasn’t much longer than that, and her speech in Savannah, GA came in at a sparse 22 minutes.

That may not make much of a dent with casual observers, but it’s a clear contrast to Trump, whose famous campaign rallies last hours with his speeches/monologues earlier in his political career running upward of two hours and now clocking in at a modest, by his measure, 90 minutes or so.

6. They already know

A big theme of this cycle has been the voters (at least those polled regularly) repeatedly telling pollsters, and by extension candidates and journalists: We get it already. (For months upon months earlier this year, respondents registered their concerns with President Joe Biden’s age and performance.)

The most recent example of the public catching the wave before the professional class? Two-thirds of respondents to an ABC/Ipsos poll said they don’t think Trump will accept the election results in November.

But the bigger message from the electorate seems to be this, whatever the candidates may feel, they’re overwhelmingly (81 percent of respondents) ready to accept the election outcome.

7. A First Amendment pillar

Brian Lamb, founder of C-SPAN and native of Lafayette, Indiana, retired today. 

If you read this newsletter, you know my affinity for hoosiers, with a dry, often understated sense of humor, and a humble commitment to work and community - powerful but rarely touted publicly. Lamb has long embodied all these values, and it’s reflected in the public service that he, with a dedicated team of professionals, built into an American mainstay, C-SPAN. 

Years ago, I remember interviewing him for a piece on whether the Supreme Court should open its doors to cameras. He was gracious with his time and insights with a cub reporter, and continued for years pushing for public access. This is the essence of professional journalism, to provide the public good, sound information so they may decide how their government should run.  

Watch C-SPAN’s farewell to Lamb here.

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Cheers,

Tom